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CNN
5 hours ago
- CNN
Phone users, bombarded by news alerts, are switching them off, study shows
Many smartphones users have grown weary of news alerts – the notifications regularly popping up on their screens to inform them of breaking news or other world events – according to a new analysis. A global survey by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism shows that 79% of respondents do not receive any news alerts during a typical week – and that 43% of those report having actively disabled such notifications. Those active disablers switch off alerts 'either because they feel they get too many or because they are not useful,' according to the report, published Tuesday. 'Publishers are extremely conscious of the tightrope they are walking when sending news alerts,' Nic Newman, the report's lead researcher, wrote. 'Most have strict limits on the number they send each day and clear criteria about the type of alerts as well as the best time to send them.' The institute found that the prevalence of news alerts has increased substantially over the past decade in many countries. For example, in the United States, the proportion of people receiving news notifications on a weekly basis has grown from 6% to 23% since 2014, and from 3% to 18% in the United Kingdom over the same time period. 'Many consumers say they are becoming overwhelmed by mobile notifications of all kinds – from news aggregators as well as publishers – as well as sports scores, calendar requests, messaging groups, and social media interactions,' Newman said. For instance, in the UK, the study showed that news aggregator apps like Google News and Apple News are used widely, though many respondents complained that such apps can send multiple alerts on the same topic. In the US, 16% of respondents said they had received at least one news alert from CNN over the previous week, followed by Google News, with 13%, and Fox News, with 11%. 'Alerts are an easy way to keep up-to-date, as well as to widen perspectives beyond breaking news,' Newman wrote. 'They are not valued, however, when they use oversensationalized headlines (clickbait) or when publishers send too many alerts that do not feel relevant.'
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- The Guardian
Rise in ‘alert fatigue' risks phone users disabling news notifications, study finds
It has become a feature of modern life – millions of phones simultaneously buzz or sound the alarm as users are notified of breaking news deemed too important to miss. Now evidence is mounting that the prevalence of news alerts is giving rise to 'alert fatigue', with some mobile phone users peppered with as many as 50 notifications a day. The rise of news aggregators such as Apple News and Google on mobile devices means some users can receive more than one alert about the same story. Analysis by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that 79% of people surveyed on the subject around the world said they did not currently receive any news alerts during an average week. Crucially, 43% of those who did not receive alerts said they had actively disabled them. They complained of receiving too many or not finding them useful, according to the research, which covered 28 countries. The use of news alerts has grown over the last decade. Weekly use of alerts in the US has grown from 6% to 23% of phone users since 2014 and from 3% to 18% in the UK, according to the analysis. The extraordinary power of the BBC News alert was underlined in the research, which suggested almost 4 million people in the UK will be notified every time the broadcaster sends one. Researchers found news companies are acutely aware they are walking a delicate line between notifying users about crucial information and causing them to unsubscribe by sending them too many updates. The study discovered that some publishers are less retrained than others. In the UK, the Times sends no more than four alerts each day. The Financial Times sends a number of general news alerts to everyone and then a personalised notification at the same time each day for those who opt in. Elsewhere, the Jerusalem Post and CNN Indonesia were found to be typically sending up to 50 alerts each day, and some news aggregator apps were sending even more. A research tool used to monitor news alerts found that the New York Times averaged 10 a day, Tagesschau in Germany averaged 1.9, NDTV in India sent 29.1, while BBC News averaged 8.3 a day. The Guardian sends about seven a day, according to the same research tool. 'It is a tightrope that publishers have been walking,' said Nic Newman, the report's lead author. 'If they send too many, people uninstall the app, which is obviously a disaster. The classic problem is publishers know they shouldn't send too many individually. But collectively, there are always going to be some bad actors who are spoiling the party. 'It is definitely alert fatigue. That's partly to do with news avoidance. [Users] want to protect themselves during the day, so they are not distracted and they can get on with other things. It doesn't mean to say they're not interested in news, but they just don't want news all the time, 24 hours a day, coming at you like an express train.' The research comes amid a huge battle for the smartphone lock screen, seen as a prime location as companies seek to build a closer relationship with their audiences or customers. News alerts jostle for position alongside messages from social media companies, games and other entertainment apps. Too many alerts could cause problems for the whole industry. The big smartphone software operators such as Apple and Google have routinely warned publishers about sending too many alerts. This has led to concerns that these platforms could further restrict or mediate their notifications in the future.
Gulf Today
2 days ago
- Business
- Gulf Today
Poll finds public turning to AI bots for news updates
People are increasingly turning to generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to follow day-to-day news, a respected media report published on Tuesday found. The yearly survey from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found 'for the first time' that significant numbers of people were using chatbots to get headlines and updates, director Mitali Mukherjee wrote. Attached to Britain's Oxford University, the Reuters Institute annual report is seen as unmissable for people following the evolution of media. Just seven per cent of people report using AI to find news, according to the poll of 97,000 people in 48 countries, carried out by YouGov. But the proportion is higher among the young, at 12 per cent of under-35s and 15 per cent of under-25s. The biggest-name chatbot - OpenAI's ChatGPT - is the most widely used, followed by Google's Gemini and Meta's Llama. Respondents appreciated relevant, personalised news from chatbots. Many more used AI to summarise (27 per cent), translate (24 per cent) or recommend (21 per cent) articles, while almost one in five asked questions about current events. Distrust remains, with those polled on balance saying AI risked making the news less transparent, less accurate and less trustworthy. Rather than being programmed, today's powerful AI 'large language models' (LLMs) are 'trained' on vast quantities of data from the web and other sources - including news media like text articles or video reports. Once trained, they are able to generate text and images in response to users' natural-language queries. But they present problems including 'hallucinations' - the term used when AI invents information that fits patterns in their training data but is not true. Scenting a chance at revenue in a long-squeezed market, some news organisations have struck deals to share their content with developers of AI models. Agence France-Presse (AFP) allows the platform of French AI firm Mistral to access its archive of news stories going back decades. Other media have launched copyright cases against AI makers over alleged illegal use of their content, for example the New York Times against ChatGPT developer OpenAI. The Reuters Institute report also pointed to traditional media - TV, radio, newspapers and news sites - losing ground to social networks and video-sharing platforms. Almost half of 18-24-year-olds report that social media like TikTok is their main source of news, especially in emerging countries like India, Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand. The institute found that many are still using Elon Musk-owned social media platform X for news, despite a rightward shift since the world's richest man took it over. 'Many more right-leaning people, notably young men, have flocked to the network, while some progressive audiences have left or are using it less frequently,' the authors wrote. Some 23 per cent of people in the United States reported using X for news, up eight per cent on 2024's survey, with usage also rising in countries like Australia and Poland. By contrast, 'rival networks like Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon are making little impact globally, with reach of two percent or less for news', the Reuters Institute found. FACSIMILES OF THE DEAD: Christopher Pelkey was shot and killed in a road range incident in 2021. On May 8, 2025, at the sentencing hearing for his killer, an AI video reconstruction of Pelkey delivered a victim impact statement. The trial judge reported being deeply moved by this performance and issued the maximum sentence for manslaughter. As part of the ceremonies to mark Israel's 77th year of independence on April 30, 2025, officials had planned to host a concert featuring four iconic Israeli singers. All four had died years earlier. The plan was to conjure them using AI-generated sound and video. The dead performers were supposed to sing alongside Yardena Arazi, a famous and still very much alive artist. In the end Arazi pulled out, citing the political atmosphere, and the event didn't happen. In April, the BBC created a deep-fake version of the famous mystery writer Agatha Christie to teach a 'maestro course on writing.' Fake Agatha would instruct aspiring murder mystery authors and 'inspire' their 'writing journey.' The use of artificial intelligence to 'reanimate' the dead for a variety of purposes is quickly gaining traction. Over the past few years, the moral implications of AI is under study at the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and these AI reanimations are found to be morally problematic. The first moral quandary the technology raises has to do with consent: Would the deceased have agreed to do what their likeness is doing? Would the dead Israeli singers have wanted to sing at an Independence ceremony organized by the nation's current government? Agencies
Saudi Gazette
2 days ago
- Business
- Saudi Gazette
Musk's X sues New York state over social media hate speech law
SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk's X has challenged a New York state law that requires social media companies to disclose how they monitor hate speech, extremism, and other contentious content. In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, argues that the law forces companies to disclose "highly sensitive and controversial speech" that is protected under the constitution's First Amendment. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is in charge of enforcing this law, is the named defendant in X's lawsuit. Social media sites have become the main source of news for Americans, with majority consuming it on networks like X, according to a new research from the Reuters Institute. Deciding what content is acceptable on social media platforms "engenders considerable debate among reasonable people about where to draw the correct proverbial line," X said. "This is not a role that the government may play." The Stop Hiding Hate Act, passed in December, requires social media companies to disclose steps they take to eliminate hate on their platforms, and to report their progress. In a statement on Tuesday, the two New York state lawmakers who sponsored the Stop Hiding Hate Act called social media companies like X "cesspools of hate speech" and said the law did not violate the First Amendment. Social media platforms, including X, "have consistently failed to inform the public about their policies regarding hatred and misinformation", Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Grace Lee said. Neither New York Attorney General Letitia James nor X replied to the BBC's request for comment on Tuesday. X's lawsuit against New York state comes nine months after the company successfully blocked a California law that required large social media companies to submit reports about their content-moderation policies. The company extensively cited its earlier victory in its Tuesday's lawsuit and criticised New York lawmakers for failing to revisit the legislation's language even after the California law was largely struck down. Musk, who acquired X in 2022, has dramatically scaled back the rules that govern what content and behaviours are acceptable on the platform, according to Professor Laura Edelson, who teaches computer science at Northeastern University. He has "also significantly reduced the resources the platform puts into enforcing even the rules it does still have," she said. "This is why, even though rules around spam haven't changed on X, there is so much more floating around than there used to be." Last year, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by Musk against a research group that documented an uptick in hate speech on the site. — BBC
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
New Report on Digital Media News Consumption Highlights the Rise of Influencers as News Providers
This story was originally published on Social Media Today. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Social Media Today newsletter. Social platforms have overtaken TV as the key news source for Americans, while influencers are also now playing a bigger part in the broader dissemination of news and information. That's according to the latest Reuters Institute 'Digital News Report,' which incorporates responses from 100,000 people across 48 countries, providing perspective on their digital content consumption habits. You can download the full 171-page (!) report here, but in this post, we'll take a look at some of the key points. First off, as noted, social media has now become the top news source overall for adults in the U.S. As per the report: 'The proportion accessing news via social media and video networks in the United States (54%) is sharply up, overtaking both TV news (50%) and news websites/apps (48%) for the first time.' So if you were wondering why divisive, angst-inducing, fear-mongering content continues to dominate news cycles, this is probably why. Social platform algorithms incentivize argument and angst, because they view those interactions as engagement, and engagement leads to more reach, more discussion, more audience, etc. As such, social platforms, and digital media more broadly, effectively incentivize divisive, polarizing takes, bringing attention to those who are willing to say whatever they want, whether it's accurate or not. That's a large contributor to the current state of political discourse, and it's no surprise, based on this, why Elon Musk was keen to buy Twitter, as a means to manage the narratives around himself and his business interests. Though it is also interesting to note the specific platforms that people are using for news engagement: Use of X has only increased slightly, while the use of Instagram and TikTok for news has jumped up of late. Though Facebook and YouTube remain the top news sources for most people, especially those in older brackets. But that may well change over time: Younger audiences are far more likely to rely on social media platforms for news updates, and when you also look at the way they use the apps that are most popular in these audience segments: It also points to influencers having more sway over the opinions of younger audiences. That'll likely change the dynamic more and more as these audiences grow up, and become more reliant on the voices that they trust, over 'mainstream' media. Again, personalities are the key factor, those who connect with their audiences, and deliver the information that they want to hear, and the opinions that they align with. Which will likely increase the impact of confirmation bias in future, as more people look to their favorite streamers to guide their thinking, as opposed to traditional media outlets. Is that a better outcome? Well, it depends on your perspective. Many people are now increasingly skeptical of the media, and the information they get from news sources, a sense that's been emboldened by events like COVID, and the mixed messaging around how to best manage and mitigate its impacts. Combine that with the fact that younger users are now growing up with these influencers as their peer guides, and you can see how this next cohort of digital media voices will be shaping elections in the years to come. MrBeast for President? That's is absolutely a possibility, as these creators continue to gain more influence and power in their own right. The report also looks at the rise of video content specifically, and how people are looking to engage with news content online: Which is true of the web more broadly, that more people are looking to video as a key source of engagement and entertainment. Because they can. Video is now so readily available, and accessible via mobile apps, that of course people are more willing to watch a clip, as opposed to reading. Will that have impacts for learning down the line, in regards to in-depth understanding of complex topics? There is something to be said for reading, and slowing down your brain to consider the facts being presented. But we're also adapting to an increasing array of inputs, all of the time, which could counter some of the loss of absorption that we get from reading and writing. Maybe. The increased reliance on video also underlines the potential risks of generative AI, in regards to generated video, that's becoming more and more realistic. These will seemingly lead to more convincing video hoaxes, though that hasn't become a major issue as yet. But overall, it does seem like we're headed towards a less informed, more rapid consumption approach to news and information, which will also be more susceptible to misinformation and disruption, through various means. Can traditional media outlets regain trust, and become more significant news and information sources once again, or has the ship sailed, and we're now reliant on Joe Rogan to keep people informed? The stats here point to the latter. You can download the full 'Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025' here. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
